te'rc^s 



LOVE POEMS 

SECOND SERIES 



REGINAJ_.D C. ROB BINS 










Class. 
Book. 



G^riglitW. 



COFmiGHT DEPOSm 



LOVE POEMS 



SECOND SERIES 



REGINALD C. ROBBINS 




CAMBRIDGE 

1912 



T 



COPYRIGHT 1905 AND I912 BY REGINALD CHAUNCEY ROBBINS 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



&CU316351 
7v *. / 



CONTENTS 



Page 
PSALMS 1 

I-XXXI 

NATURE AND RELiaON ....... 35 

I-XIV 

PURGATORY AND JUDGMENT 51 

I-X 

VEDAS 63 

I-XIII 

HELLENICS 79 

I-XXVIII 

AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE ........ 109 

I-XXXII 



PSALMS 



PSALMS 



I 

I COME to thee, beloved, not with a lie ; 

But frankly, fairly, with confession full 

Of old lost love behind this love for thee. 

Sooth, I have lived, have suffer'd ; and know the need 

Of continence in every dream of thee ; 

Of fear and reverence in thine holy place 

Beyond this tumult of delight in thee. 

I have been through the fire, not all unscathed ; 

And yet with prayer and praise would enter now 

On a new martyrdom if but for thee. 

Beloved, thou wilt not blame that therehath been 

Another's love. It serves to deepen thine. 



LOVE POEMS 



ii 



For I am as a soul prepared by years 
Of fasting from the sight of promised lands 
To enter in, not as a conqueror 
But, as a lost life in the hand of God 
The suddenly compassionate to turn 
The famine and the fever of mine heart 
To solemn splendor all unmerited. 
Nay, I have learn'd religion and am come 
But to obey behest of love's supreme 
Commandment whatsoever may befall. 
The desert lieth about me. But mine eyes 
Have seen : and now I very well may die. 



PSALMS 



III 

And if not unto death but unto life 
Thou leadest me to take possession, in 
The name of the Most High, of heaven-on-earth ; 
If thou allowest that I may lay my life 
Quick, stalwart at thy feet for service there ; 
Shall any blame be that I still have served 
In darkness and in desperate dismay, 
With face of heaven averted, some false god 
That seem*d scarce false to mine idolatry ? 
There be who call such service un repaid 
The nobler. Ah, at worst I have not swerved 
'From worship ; though the noblest were of thee. 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 



And thereby, that I come to thee with full 
Experience of the powers that sway the heart 
Within itself to live or yet to die ; 
Therein that I have felt how soul alone 
Determines life or death within itself, 
Choosing between false gods and God Most High ; 
Therefore were God Most High, as this my soul, 
Self-comprehended in this love of thee ; 
Which, losing lesser loves, finds them afresh 
Transfigured and regenerate : as the gods 
Have sanctioning and warranty but through 
Thy God of Love Who comprehends them all. 



PSALMS 



Thus in the wisdom of the new delight 
New worth is yielded to the former loss ; 
And this enrapture hath about it still 
The ancient tragedy. The beauty of it 
Were blent with beauty of an Hell behind 
Now lifted clean of Hell's sheer agony 
And seen a foil for Heaven to heighten it. 
The misery, the infinite dismay 
Were then blameworthy in their own sad hour 
Not now. I turn to thee as free and pure 
As any seraph. And thine angelhood 
Thus wholly triumphs as the legions fall. 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 



The legions of the fiend within me then 

Thus wholly serve and crown thee conqueror 

Who art thyself new savior to my soul. 

A justification of the ways of God 

To man finds instance in mine heart to-day 

Who wholly love thee, having wholly loved 

And lost ; and could not know thee thus with heart 

Wholly subdued and chasten'd, all devout, 

Save for the shame and sorrow that hath been. 

Thy grace, beloved ! if a moment's gleam 

Of hope betray'd a spirit still unredeem'd ! 

'T were false. I hope not. I but stand and wait. 



8 



PSALMS 



VII 



Yet is delay itself a misery ; 

For 1 am mortal if my love is not. 

And loss of opportunity to serve 

Is loss of life all irremediable. 

Lo ! I am creature, less than godhead, still ; 

And need thy very presence, and thy power 

Envisaging, to be as I would be 

Seer and prophet of thy reign on earth. 

The world is thine and I am of thy world 

Indeed : but am such distant part in it ! 

Only my love, containing thee afar, 

Enableth me to wait : though I must mourn. 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 

Yea, in each hour 'soever of my search 

Through all things for the chance to serve thy will 

(A search that falleth frustrate everywhere 

Because, forsooth, I dare not pray thee yet 

To grant command, to set the task ; but must 

In secret worship lest thou turn from me !), 

Findeth my spirit in the failure still 

Thy best compassion and benignity ! 

For 't is in terms of thee my love interprets 

Or failure or success ; in name of thee 

That I within myself have end and aim : 

And am as one with thee though thou wouldst not. 



10 



PSALMS 



IX 



Therefore, since all of earth interprets thee 

Unto my love ; and 1 in learning earth 

Learn thee, searching thy scriptures with a faith 

Increasing for the wisdom gain'd of thee ; 

Therefore am I through every loneliest hour 

Increasing hourly in the love of thee, 

As in capacity (with heart enrapt 

Of understanding of thy ways to men) 

To pray to thee and preach the gospel of thee 

Unto the nations ! — Who, that knew thee not 

By vigil and by fasting and by searching 

Thy wonderwork, might prophesy ttiee true ? 



11 



LOVE POEMS 



And so I go before thee among men 
Undoubting, uttering of thee day by day 
The day's best message ; *M am he who cometh 
'* In name of Love, before the feet of her 
" Love's angel of the miracle to men." 
Though wastes be round about me and my fare 
Be famine, my face perforce averted from thee 
To speak with fearlessness my message to them, 
Yet shall the path behind be blossoming ; 
And fruitfulness unto the husbandman 
Reward earth in thy footsteps. And mine eyes 
Are forward set, assured that thus are thine. 



12 



PSALMS 



XI 

And that 1 am fresh convert to thy faith 

Disableth not from full apostleship 

In the new light, new learning. Had I been 

A sorry skeptic, cynic, stoic, till 

Thy power possess 'd me, what afflatus now 

Could e'er compensate for the weakling soul ? 

What heart of suffering were beneath these lips 

To speak with understanding, not as one 

Requiring authority for voice ? 

Art thou not holier and thy prophet purer 

That he hath pray'd in the temple whilst they scoff *d ; 

And thou art proven divine beyond all gods ? 



13 



LOVE POEMS 



XII 



Wherefore in fine I pray thee (for the first 

If not the last desire directed toward thee), 

Accept this scripture of an earlier faith 

Not dedicate to thee save as I now 

Declare to thee : the Spirit that cult but miss'd 

Find I concentred in thy strength and mind. 

Read in my book, beloved, how, should thine heart 

Prove unresponsive, must thy worshiper 

Degenerate beneath contempt at last 

And the mantle fall from the prophet lost in soul. — 

I nothing hope. I nothing claim of thee. 

I but avow, beloved, my love is so. 



14 



PSALMS 



XIII 



Perchance thou wilt assert thou needest nought 
Of prophecy to help prepare thy way. 
Thou findest all paths pleasant, hast enough 
Of worshipers and wouldst not enter on 
Crusade of saviorship for any soul ? 
One more, one less ! His very need confess'd 
For thee must seem unworthy in thy sight ? 
His fear to fall must prove unfitness in him ? 

I fear not. Only, if thou art the God 
My faith envisioneth, thou wilt not wait 
Eternally before thou takest on thee 
The human way and sufferest for man. 



15 



LOVE POEMS 



XIV 

How high an office then of prophecy 
Without assurance of the spoken word 
Vouchsafed nor present vision in the flesh ! 
How proud a mantle ; when the very God 
Withholdeth sign and doubteth of the way ! 
Not merely to announce to wondering men 
The white love-miracle ; but all the while 
To pray for truth of what the lips proclaim ! 
And never doubting, save to conquer doubt 
And yield faith greater glory ! — If the God 
Doubteth of saviorship, O love, behold 
This more-than-man thy power hath raised to 
praise thee ! 



16 



PSALMS 



XV 



Thou wilt not misinterpret. I but mean, 

No man, save for thy spirit to strengthen him 

Within him by the love he beareth thee, 

Might without desperate dismay indeed 

Abide thine absence and thy silence still. 

No word ; though I have prophesied aloud 

Thy coming, now 'twould seem so long ago ! 

And I must wait the fire to fall, though nought 

Of light's least glimmering followeth on the prayer 

For all the faith of him thine oracle ! 

And mine heart scoffs me. Love, might a mere man 

Endure between thy silence, and self-scorn ? 



17 



LOVE POEMS 



XVI 



Thou hast allowed the leading and a light 
Out of the silence ; and I fall afraid. 
Unto my spirit hath thy still voice spoke 
Enheartening ; and now 1 sink ashamed : 
Who was thy poet aloud when thou wast dumb 
Now speechless bow a coward's brow before thee. 
Thou knowest not the low humanity 
Thou stoopest thus to lift. One touch of mine 
Would ruin divinity — e'en such as thee ! 
I flee before thee, scarce thy prophet now, 
Though yet thy servant : seeking thus to save 
Heart's miracle from turning common clay. 



18 



PSALMS 



XVII 

And yet what service, thus to doubt of thee 
Thine absolute godship though thy soul assume 
The human way, and sufferest and dwellest 
Among men that the earth may learn of thee ? 
What saviorship were mine, to thwart in thee 
The perfect sacrifice that most proclaims 
Thy womanhood divine and shows thee, God, 
As thou wouldst win and save a human soul ? 
How despicable the doubt that though I were — 
Ah, that 1 am ! — thy strength might ever fail ! 
I will accept the intimation ; pray 
For power to endure as chosen of the Lord. 



19 



LOVE POEMS 



XVIII 



Beloved, what vain presumption to pretend 
Authentic oracle at last vouchsafed ! 
What phantasm of this fever-misted soul 
To hear in the ears what yet the sense of man 
Hath heard not, nay, and haply shall not hear ! 
I, overtask'd with watching, see the night 
Suddenly open'd : and have but dream'd the dawn 
As mine exhaustion dropt me where I lie ! 
Humbly I will arise, groping to greet 
The world as thou hast made it ; starless, yea — 
Though not with any dawn as I had dream'd ; 
And humbly learn thee from thy stocks and stones. 



20 



PSALMS 



XIX 



FOR, lo ! I know thee hardly yet at all, 

To tell the meaning of thy slightest speech 

Or silence as my heart would deeply know ! 

And thou, e'en though all-wise, mightest still doubt 

The wonder and sincerity of worship 

Of him harping before thee at thine ark ! 

Thou mightest deem him one but of the throng 

Idly frequenting this thy tabernacle 

For casual augury ; not one who comes 

Searching the revelations for some song 

Of absolute insight and significance — 

Who would be King in Israel ; or dead. 



21 



LOVE POEMS 



XX 



LOVE, but perchance thou art not then aware 
Of speech unto the theme that stirreth me ? 
Thou hast not broken silence in thine heart ; 
And but with some lip-music fool'st mine ear 
Unwittingly, with merely natural speech 
Of maidenhood, not supernature's way ? 
The womanly divine but slumbereth still ; 
And this is witchery though nought of love ? — 
And yet, though thou wert soulless even in song, 
Need I be as the deaf fill'd with despair ? 
I fear not, hope not, doubt not ; knowing all speech 
Symphonic in thee : as thou art my soul. 



22 



PSALMS 



XXI 

But unto thee divine I turn and pray 
With expectation full by prayer to win 
Through grace vouchsafed that which by works 

alone 
Were nowise merited. For by the prayer, 
Utter'd in perfect faith of grace to be, 
I lift beyond the human to thy life 
Of miracle and am with thee divine. 
1 asking of thee that thou realize, love. 
Merely the meaning of our humanhood. — 
Were 't for an hour, a day, this love I ask, 
*T were somewhat then to tax a finite faith. 
But it is only for eternity. 



23 



LOVE POEMS 



XXII 

Ay, 't is the absoluteness of the grace 

Demanded that ensureth confidence. 

How might I ask thee any finite boon 

With hope to win or courage for the loss — 

We being, we both, but soulless at the last 

If chaffering of other gift than love ? 

'T is certain that the prayer, and so the grace, 

Concludeth every possibility 

Of earth's well-being. Bitter, dear, as were 

That hour when thou shalt cast presumption down. 

Rather would I be thine scorn M and rejected 

Than high-priest unto any of them all. 



24 



PSALMS 



XXIII 

FOR what were I advantaged by the speech 
Of any oracle of those not thine ? 
Profuse be many of the multi-gods 
In favor unto men idolatrous 
As thousand of their prophets still report. 
So be it, I have unto the world without 
No word authentic to proclaim. Beneath 
Thy common tabernacle I but stand 
*Mid many ; and am not yet call'd within 
The holier place, nor ever may be call'd. 
Enough. I know the shrine is sanctified ; 
And thou art God in Israel alone. 



LOVE POEMS 



XXIV 

And thus by being alone the God Most High 

Yieldest thou sanction to the oracles 

Of those idolaters and makest their sin 

A splendor and a safeguard unto earth. 

If in thy majesty thou still art proven, 

Defined and reverenced by being above 

All pettier godships ; then, by this thy place 

Unique beyond all sanctuaries else, 

Are they authentic oracle and those 

Not all-deluded in their worshiping. 

Troth, I have elsewhere worship'd ; yet am come 

Not sinful unto wisdom beyond all. 



26 



PSALMS 



XXV 



Therefore it were not wholly ruinous, 
As might have been were faith less liberal, 
This that I learn from other prophets now 
Proclaim'd anent thee with assured self-truth. 
If thou hast spoken, ah, to them, not me, 
And through some oracle not thine alone, 
*T were otherwise a faith-destroying shame. 
But now I bow to thine inscrutable 
Benignity that thou to man some least 
Hath spoken, if yet not in thine own way 
As I had deem'd thy best and holiest. 
I lie before thee stricken, but not dumb. 



27 



LOVE POEMS 



XXVI 

And from the silence of thy proper shrine 
Cometh a sudden sound of purer proof 
Than any heard and by their tongues retold 
From other oracle. I cease from prayer 
And hearken only ; and am wholly rapt 
By wonder of the beauty of that voice. 
It speaketh not the last ennobling word 
Of absolute sanction to the waiting soul. 
It sayeth not : '* I choose thee." But the God 
(O love, the God-in-thee ! ) hath said at last 
(And I myself hearing it do believe) : 
*' I hear thee. Verily thy God I am ! " 



28 



PSALMS 



XXVII 

Therefore unto the Lord sing a new song, 
Concluding every symphony of earth 
In one word, meet for man unto his God. 
Unto the God within me and in thee 
Give prophecy, speaking before the Lord 
The word His wisdom holdeth heart in heart ! 
Therefore, '* I love thee ! " sing I openly ; 
Knowing thy soul hath hearken'd, knowing all 
Of earth, thine earth, will tell thee of my love 
And there be no concealment, but all truth 
Be utterly reveal' d and world be new. 
Therefore new heaven, new earth, sing thee this 
song. 



29 



LOVE POEMS 



XXVIII 

FOR I am as a man made over new, 
Regenerate and transfigured, resurrect 
From out the charnel of the love gone by. 
Thou stretchest forth thy finger and sayest 

** Come.'' 
And the rigor melts in rapture, and the ear 
Heareth the call that had not before heard ; 
And a great morning bursts over the eyes 
With inrush of the sunshine from above, 
As the grave opens and the sepulchre 
Falleth asunder and the soul is free. 
And Lazarus he waketh suddenly 
And filleth his vision with thy seraph face. 



30 



PSALMS 



XXIX 

Ah ! but, behold, as 1 arise to speak : 
** Master ! *' and touch thy garment and be heal'd 
Behold, the hand, that I in death had dream'd 
Held forth to succor and be miracle, 
Withdraweth ; the vision melteth and the tomb 
Closeth anew upon the doom'd at last. — 
Thy pardon, Lord, that he who lieth dead 
Had dream'd of resurrection I Could thy power 
But grant a quietude within the grave. 
The charnel scarce were desolate. But now 
I desperately aspire, eternally 
1 suffocate within thy sepulchre ! 



31 



LOVE POEMS 



XXX 

Yet will I not the miracle shall fail 
Wholly ; nor thou be God unhumanized, 
Not walking on the earth to save the dead. 
Nor if thou walkest of earth shall I admit 
Thee undivine because I cannot rise. 
It is my spirit's failure that draws me back ; 
1 was not sleeping but was truly dead. 
And now it is thy miracle's success, 
Best resurrection that might come to me, 
To agonize within my charnel-house ! 
Beloved, I thank thee for thy miracle, 
Who learn my doom and make my life of it. 



32 



PSALMS 



XXXI 



FOR one last privilege thou canst not take : 

The mystery, that I half- waked to thee ; 

The joy, that I have been thy doorkeeper, 

In sanctity despising Belial's feasts. 

If from the temple thou hast purged me out, 

Yet never was I there a trafficker 

Nor scoffer ; but have recollection now 

Of the sterner cult: Jehovah, Lord-I-Am.— 

'T were clearer so. I might forsooth confuse 

My mere humanity with thy divine, 

Wert thou, too, human ! And I now rejoice 

In thine authentic wrath for Sign of God. 



33 



NATURE AND RELIGION 



NATURE AND RELIGION 



I 

Beloved, I in obedience to thy will 

Declared by oracle of flame vouchsafed 

Am fled before thee and am cover 'd now 

Of wilderness. Not as the dove wing-borne 

To dwell at peace ; but with a patient toil 

Hour by hour, day added unto day. 

Have 1 fared forestward through forest depths 

To reach earth's rigor and be death with it. 

Thou hast denied thy live humanity 

In thine own person. Wherefore am 1 fled 

(Balk'd of all aspiration) to the deeps 

To find thee. And, behold ! thou art not here, 



37 



LOVE POEMS 



II 

There are whose wisdom findeth a divine 

In earth sans aspiration to achieve ; 

Who would suppose thee in thy stocks and stones 

Without discrimination. Not so I. 

The ways of wilderness I well have known 

Long ere I knew of thee. The joys uncouth, 

Confused felicities of beast, of bird. 

The multitudinous mating of the trees. 

Have not been seal'd from me. And so I come 

As to an old familiar to these paths 

Of earth the elder birth before God was. 

And, lo ! how might earth's godlessness mean thee ? 



38 



NATURE AND RELIGION 



III 



There are who, failing faith in beast, bird, branch, 
As these are brute-lil<e, beast-like, fain have set 
God over against any of His works 
Beyond and yet not of them. These are fled 
Even forestward and unto wilderness 
In fear but not in fair obedience 
To any call divine. And these would dwell 
Living the life uncouth, the monstrous love. 
The multitudinous bestialness indeed 
In brute content, forgetful still of thee. 
May I who fail of faith in beast and bird 
Thus also utterly lose faith in thee? 



39 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 

LOVE ! therefore, rising from the ways of beast 
And branch, upreaching from the forest deeps 
Their labyrinth and dimness, have I climb'd 
Even to these rock-set hilltops, worn o' the wind, 
O* the lightning burnt at a blast, but thus in sweep 
Commanding from above prospect of all 
Earth's brute-like multitudinous upthrusts 
Of mountainous emotions rough and swarth. 
Here of these hills for an hour may I assume 
The outlook as of faith self-lift within ; 
To reinterpret earth in terms at worst 
Of some intelligence and truth of thee ? 



40 



NATURE AND RELIGION 



The noon is on all nature : the poise of light 

Intense as once the stroke that on these hills 

Fell to yield vision by the fiery wrack. 

Now is the solstice of the searching day 

To reach within the dim wood-fastnesses 

Their dens of indiscrimination still 

And strike and clear all re-creatingly 

As at the God-birth when light first moved upon 

The chaos. Now my soul, annihilate 

Late by thy word which erst created it, 

Seeth its death — foregone — yet none less near, 

And needing re-creation in thy nanfie. 



41 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 

For God (and by the godship of the world 
I ever mean love's insight self-defining, 
Within and yet without and through all things, 
Their substance, strength and purpose !) God being 

not 
Found of the wilderness as earth is brute 
And bestial in its deep primordial sin 
Of indiscrimination self from self; 
God being not earth i' the birth, and earth alone 
Not satisfying as earth's throes of the throng 
Are over against God's Self and not of Him : 
Therefore art thou not to be found of earth 
As earth is seen and known in primal fact. 



42 



NATURE AND RELIGION 



VII 



Toward earth's first fact I did indeed return 
(Because thou saidst : ** Divine ye shall not be.") 
Therewith to dwell in dim bewilderment 
As beast and branch as they for fact are known — 
Without faith in them and not finding thee. 
Now have my feet aspired, mine eyes attain 'd 
In some sort to an introspect of earth 
As from some secret eminence of soul 
(Of soul's necessity, akin to thee !) 
Down-gazing forestward to comprehend 
The selfhood, spiritual determinateness, 
The godliness of wilderness — by thee. 



43 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 

And thus upon these lofty uplands stand 

I strong of prospect by the self -death foregone ; 

Confronting with the sense of splendor still 

The misery of the meaner ways of life 

Whereto thy speech hath doom'd me. There may be 

God in the wilderness. There may be yet 

Thou in the deeps whereto I must descend, 

Thou lifting, sustaining as these hills sustain 

The dim uncertain patience and the toil 

Unending and unresting, infinite stint. 

Here of these hills I learn there is a God 

Could I but find Him. For I see as He. 



44 



NATURE AND RELIGION 



IX 

Behold a beauty and wonder of the world — 
Thy name and definition ! — not of thee, 
Yet, as I see, seen in the faith of thee 
And otherwise not wonder-beautiful ! 
Here is the ordering of rock and stream, 
The rigor of nature systemized and true 
Declared. And truth is utterly of thee. 
Deep calleth unto deep when I to thee 
Speak from this wilderness in faith of thee 
The meaning and intelligence of these 
Thy soul ; despite thy soul-denial still ! — 
Though they be, yea, apart as deep from deep. 



45 



LOVE POEMS 



Thus in thy person art thou vital yet 

By virtue of that earth-divinity 

Thou canst not, love, forego. For thou art God 

Unto my spirit, though unto these mine eyes 

Not visible. The seen by the unseen 

My soul must reinterpret and thereby, 

By virtue of the omnipresence proven 

Of this thy person whence I am fled away, 

Acknowledge and proclaim thee to thyself 

Beloved ; and therefore as love within these all 

To constitute the world thou wouldst cast down, 

Deep still sustaineth deep : though I lose thee. 



46 



NATURE AND RELIGION 



XI 

The noon-hour passeth and I again descend 
Down unto mire and meanness by thy doom ; 
Doom'd to the patient toil, the faring forth 
Through ways of wilderness. But not as erst 
The dim bewilderment. The rage uncouth, 
The multitudinous primordial sin, 
Even by its systematic ordering seen, 
Intendeth thee above, beyond yet through 
Each beast and branch ; not as in primal fact 
Bestial nor brutal, but as spiritual 
Each creature of the nether, elder birth 
Intending God and therefore one with Him, 



47 



LOVE POEMS 



XII 



And therefore one with thee as each must fail 
To achieve thee and thereby defineth thee 
The Infinite in Whom are these at all 
Creatures of meaning and intelligence 
Intelligible to the searching soul. 
Lo ! in obedience, love, unto thy will 
Supreme, am I fled unto wilderness, 
Unfearing and unloathing these that yet 
Are not thou and are full of fear and blame. 
I as these lost, acknowledging my fall 
And frenzy of aspiration thwart, am fled 
To wilderness from thee. And thou art here. 



48 



NATURE AND RELIGION 



XIII 



Beloved, for at thy word the universe 

Fell ruin'd. The mountains to the plains ran down 

Molten ; the seas dried up ; and all in ash 

Confused lay for world-bewilderment. 

I alone, stricken, I alone remain'd 

Of all God's souls in the world to weep at thee 

And drown earth's devastation. But, behold ! 

An ordering anew, a beauty born 

Of desolation as had never been ! 

Ah ! for, beloved ! thy face of deity 

Unveil 'd ! and in thy naked hand the sword ! 

And this my soul, as every soul, self-known ! 



49 



LOVE POEMS 



XIV 



WORLD SO hath come full circle. At the first 
Said He : *' Let there be light.'* And thereupon 
Within the fume of the vapors burn'd a flame 
And showed them to themselves, that they did part : 
The nether from the upper : the firmament 
Establish 'd of the fiat. And there was light. — 
Now through the chaos of the crumbling years 
Cometh the new creation. At the last 
The culmination of aspiring earth ; 
The lift almost to heaven ; but, from above, 
The stroke ; the desolation ; and the voice : 
**Let there be Light.'* Beloved! and there — art 
Thou. 



50 



PURGATORY AND JUDGMENT 



PURGATORY AND JUDGMENT 



I 

LOVE, I have been admitted to thy life 
Anew ; thereby myself being wrought alive 
Well-nigh as formerly or e'er thy face 
Was veil'd e'en by that fire which, flaring it, 
O' the instant slew the soul down out of me. 
Alive as formerly ; and yet with life 
Extinct. As one who, lifted from the grave 
By grace, is call'd before the eternal Judge 
Through His purgation of a thousand years : 
I moving, breathing yet within the grave 
My thousand years ; whilst over me my judge 
Denies life's privilege to plead of life. 



53 



LOVE POEMS 



II 



It were as though all witness of my soul 

Ceased at this crisis when my soul awakes 

For fresh performance ; I, even as one dumb 

Despite lip-motion simulate of speech ; 

And thou, ignoring all that tells of life 

Now teeming, toiling in me : whilst thy heart 

Ponders the sear'd leaves of that screed o' the hope 

Now fallen forever : ponders, nor approves ; 

And dooms the lost soul to be lost soul still 

For all its turmoil, all its potency 

Of reformation through thy purging grace. — 

How canst thou judge of life in a thing dead ? 



54 



PURGATORY AND JUDGMENT 



III 



FOR I have been denied to speak of love, 
Which love was, is, and shall be my life all. 
And therefore am as dead within my grave 
Though lifted in all else to share with thee 
Life ; am as one thus call'd beyond the grave 
To soul-purgation, yet who may not plead 
Of the regenerance of his very soul — 
So misseth absolution ! 'Fore thy face 
Must I stand loveless ; though not blamelessly 
Might any man approach thee (Thou of Love !) 
Save rapt in light of like divinity ! 
And thus am I foredoom 'd as one who sins. 



55 



LOVE POEMS 



IV 



Yet is my judge august, and being all-wise 
Shall search me deeper than my soul may know. 
The depths shall not be hid though I be dumb ; 
Nor love, denied love's utterance, fail of speech 
In love's obedience to thy dear decree ! 
Thou wilt not, love, mistake the sombre mien 
Of him who living dwelleth as the dead 
For death at heart ; nor fail to feel within 
My shroud a vivid fire of sacrifice 
Consuming, sanctifying the true man 
Beyond all peradventure of such crime 
Of sacrilege. For thou wilt see the soul. 



56 



PURGATORY AND JUDGMENT 



And shall I dread that thou shalt see and hear 
That which is in me ? Ah ! though save for thee 
Forsooth were I some monstrous mould of sin, 
Love yet were some salvation ; and a love 
Toward thee directed and concluding thee 
(Such love as mine) were stuff that maketh man — 
Though scorn'd, yea, and rejected, spurn'd, cast 

down — 
But little lower than the angels ; ay. 
Crown 'd as with glory and power, half-divine ! 
Love, in the scathless confidence of truth 
Must I approach thee though no stain were hid ! 
Though Hell were in me, thou shouldst learn it Love. 



57 



LOVE POEMS 



VI 



Therefore l scarce need seek to hide my face 

From thee for shame of any sacrilege. 

I can but pray thy judgment, searching deep, 

Shall see as I see as 1 look within. 

For there within seem many truths of thee. 

And many universes of thy soul, 

And many unions of thy heart and strength 

Mysteriously through every hour of earth : 

That all is sanctity. Were sacrilege 

Such victory ? Were my self -searching soul 

Blasphemous with acknowledgment of God 

(Though God condemn me !) as its self self-known ? 



58 



PURGATORY AND JUDGMENT 



VII 

And if, inspired with sense of thee within, 

The mute soul mutely agonizing speak 

Some syllable of godship to its God, 

Some irrepressible momentary lapse 

In witness of its worship — shall its doom 

Burst straightway for such insubordinance ? 

Beloved, were I but raised to thy right hand 

O' the wonder-seat, how sure the ways of God 

Were then the ways of man, regenerate man ! 

But now, thy mercy ! if my lips must feel 

Some suffocation of the sepulchre 

Although my breast breathe at thy dread command, 



59 



LOVE POEMS 



VIII 



Nay, were not any service, which might show 

Thee to thyself within me, in some least 

A reconciling of the rift 'twixt God 

And His creation that belongeth to Him ? 

Sith God thou art then this thy kingdom of 

The spirit were of thee self-responsibly ; 

And this thy condemnation of the world 

A contradiction passing hope of peace. 

If in my service some obedience 

Haply seem wanting (which may troth forfend !), 

Perchance in me some power of thee prevaileth 

Over thyself to prove thy world thine own ! 



60 



PURGATORY AND JUDGMENT 



IX 



I KNOW not. — Wholly yet into thy hands 

Now I commit my spirit undismay'd. 

No mercy I need ask : for, that myself, 

Such as I am, am wholly made of thee ; 

And fair or foul, thy saint or satan, still 

Am servant, self-essential to thy state. 

Into thy presence must I fearlessly 

Pass and be proven, fronting thee as one 

Who finds at last that peace, that comprehension, 

Beyond all understanding. I though mute 

Must speak thee to thyself. Though thou condemn 

I shall not be sequester'd from thy soul. 



61 



LOVE POEMS 



Therefore, through whatsoever pools of peace 
Thou purgest me, shall I my thousand years, 
Unto the sounding of the trumpet, lie 
In silent ecstasy for sight of God. 
The vision melts not though the tomb be seal'd. 
And at the head and feet of me, I know. 
Are guardians, ever with the speed of thought 
Swift to be pleading at the throne of thee. 
With intercession for who will not plead. 
The thousand years of thine eternity 
Are as an instant. From the tomb my song 
Already riseth as the morning shines. 



62 



VEDAS 



VEDAS 



ADITI — THE NATURE OF LIFE 

Men may not, though by subtlest scrutiny, 
By prayer and offering at thy secret shrine, 
Elucidate this mystery of breath, 
Of love's beginning and the source of worlds. 
We can but feel, some flaw first must have been 
That separateth self or world from thee. 
We can but call thee Nature ; and be known 
As to ourselves ; but cannot yet know thee. 
We hymn thee as we sense thee, stream or sky, 
Cloud, tempest, earth or star or sun, though none 
Proven of thy substance, none divinely thee ! — 
Beloved, art thou then nought; thou, self-unknown ? 



65 



LOVE POEMS 



DYAUS — THE FIRMAMENT 

Within thy universal frame are set 

All star-stuffs and all suns, establish 'd vast 

And wonderful. But, love, beyond aught else 

This land of India proclaimeth thee. 

And thou art fashioner of all beneath 

Thy vault ; and in thine image are all things 

Fashioned that anywise may move and know. 

Wherefore art thou, in monstrance of Dyaus 

The over-arching firmament, self-known 

Even through thy creatures : and thyself art 

whole. — 
May thy vast wonder-working through my spirit, 
As India, proclaim thee Fashioner ! 



66 



VEDAS 



PRITHIVI— THE EARTH 

FOR, though these heavens are wide above the earth 

Riftless, all incorrupted of the flaw 

Of heart's humanity, yet were they nought, 

A nescience and some void, chaotic, save 

Even for these sufferant mountains and these plains 

Half-parch'd yet springing : utterly thy work. 

These art thou as by works thou shalt be known — 

Earth of this Indian spiritual drought 

Thine act-reality. And thus to earth, 

To dust, to labor, to the pathos of them 

In hourly, iterated tragedy 

I turn and worship, naming them thy name. 



67 



LOVE POEMS 



VARUNA — THE DARK SKY 

Still above earth, yet as some soul of it, 
Thine immemorial mind and influence, 
This inspiration of thy nightly stars ! 
Over all earth an hush is consecrate 
To rest-renewal and to dream ; but, lo ! 
Close in the tree-tops, earth's own imagery 
Of stars : the multiple glow-fly shimmering ! 

Love, 
Thy distantness for guide divine ; and, love, 
Within me love for image of thy lamps* 
Flickering, as the night-breeze in the boughs 
Sways ever the fiery wing-wisps. Thus I lie 
Uncertain, blind save to the vast of thee. 



6S 



VEDAS 



USHAS — THE DAWN 

Night hath been, ay, upon the Indian plain 
Night ; and the ambient peaks majestical 
Have been but blacknesses along the stars, 
Blotting their brilliance, proving them aloof. 
And India lay beneath them lightlessly. 
Now art thou come, with paling of the stars 
Before a nearer brilliance, thou the Dawn, 
Disclosing in thyself the world enorb'd 
And wonderful, and every hill a flame 
Of orient increase, guardian now and source 
Of field's fecundity. And in my soul 
Wide India worships as it wakes and works. 



69 



LOVE POEMS 



SOMA — THE ENLIGHTENING 

YONDER the wakening of the roseate hills, 
And, lo 1 the warming of the vales, and now 
The surging into gold of these green plains 
And golden-silver of these quickening streams ! 
And now the myriad humankind astir 
Turn to the sacred waters ; and the shrines 
Send myriad murmurings of the heart devout 
At mount in air unto the day's high gates 
Wide-oped, exultant. And the fervid draught 
Of thine elixir courseth through all things, 
Soma, fit beverage of the soul and strength 
Pour'd of thy spirit granting this new day ! 



70 



VEDAS 



SURYA — THE SUN 

Thine the new day, as thou hast granted it. 
And thine the labor as the enlighten'd earth 
And every people of thy teeming land 
Work in the name of thee because of light. 
Light on the lofty mountains, and at last 
Light in the rugged vales and fields of tilth. 
Light in the water-courses through and through 
Resplendent. And upon the barrens stark 
Of this my parch'd but high-uplifted heart 
A breadth of barren light ! — I thank thy heart 
That yields such searching sight, illumining 
All India the while it withereth it. 



71 



LOVE POEMS 



AGNI — THE PASSION OF FIRE 

FOR Agni art thou and a sacrifice : 
Insufferable by heat of energy 
Exhausting these that would be of thy life. 
Thine this afflatus that, updrawn to thee, 
Would live by thee and therefore perisheth 
Consumed, half -ashen by the growth of it. 
One sacrifice, a furnace as of flame 
Unto thy cauterization lies the soul, 
This India, this Indian quick heart 
Of me that feareth whilst it fain were thine. 
This knowledge of thee is earth's agony; 
This fire of thee within, the spirit's end. 



72 



VEDAS 



INDRA — THE SKY OBSCURED 

And therefore through the smoke of sacrifice 

A shroud for India, as for my soul 

A covering for its too naked wrath. 

Lo ! we have seen thee and been all ablaze 

Through noon's perfervor, gazing on earth's self 

Self-known, and through earth-nature on thy self 

As thou art known unto thyself by works. 

And we are blinded by excess of sight ; 

And the hot day doth wane before its hour 

With fume of the pomp funereal, with dust 

Of the death-striving and the doom attained. 

Thou wanest from thy truth, lest love'should swoon. 



73 



LOVE POEMS 



MARUTS — THE TEMPESTS 

And with the waning waxeth an untruth 
Of militant denial, earth and air 
Convulsed and lightning-rent, thunderous-crush'd 
With frenzy of dismay that thou art done, 
Art sheer withdrawn out of the truth of things 
And self-conceal'd, world wots not how nor where. 
Enough that truth hath turn'd away, enough 
That madness hath got hold of us, and we 
Are rent and rack'd : the spirit hurtling, love. 
Against itself to dash down love and all 
Drown'd as in soul's immitigable grief 
At loss and desolation — losing thee. 



74 



VEDAS 



MITRA — THE AFTERMATH 

Yet where hath been love's insight can be never 
Mere desolation. For the sense of loss 
Involves thee still. And this embitter'd clod 
Of wreck'd sad earth hath known a noon and thee. 
The streams are over-brimm'd and every bough 
Drops sweetness on the wilderness. Earth's sorrow 
Hath yet fecundity by sense of thee. — 
The song may come to voice or may not come. 
In the hush'd evening air perchance may rise 
New hymn to thine embalming beauty, fresh 
Praise to thy truth that hath been. Or perchance 
Shall all things fade voiceless upon the night. 



^5 



LOVE POEMS 



ASVINS — THE TWILIGHT 

BETWEEN the doubtful lights lies India ; 

*Twixt daytime and the darkness. Now the clouds 

Are slow roll'd back ; and where thy sun hath set 

Lingers the serious saffron ; and the stars 

Come one by one. And all is as if day 

Had never been, save for earth's sadness still 

And shroud of vapor. And the evensong 

Comes not. — As thou seemst lost out of the world, 

What were to fill the song or give it goal ? 

Who art thou that thou knowest not thyself 

By works : who art thou that thou knowest not love ? 

What were thy name but Dusk — spoke doubtfully ? 



76 



VEDAS 



YAMA — THE NATURE OF DEATH 

As thou wast ere the being of all things, 
Aditi, so art thou soul's aim and end : 
Yama, the course of time beyond all years. 
As thou art Nature, art thou more than life 
Or love, that which death -dusk but openeth. 
Though we be by this mystery of self 
Debarr'd from thee, yet, being but emanate 
Of thy self-involution, must we come 
Back to the nought and nescience of thy name. 

Beloved, shall all of wonder life hath wrought 

Despairingly be thus annihilate ? 

Or Shalt thou wake and learn thyself love's world ? 



17 



HELLENICS 



HELLENICS 

THE AEGEAN SEA 

I 

Beloved ! I saw a cloud o'er Samothrace. 
Behind it streaming flew refulgent robes 
Steep'd of the setting sun whose rays, conceal'd 
Yet saturating as with liquid light, 
Gave glory. And the very shape thereof 
Was glory. For above the purpled isle 
That cloud, procumbent to the sweep o' the wind 
And trailing splendor, yet uprear'd a front 
With outlook ample and an arm held forth 
Bearing, yea, somewhat very like a Voice : 
Itself the Victory ! — And Greece hath said 
Its prayer and prophecy, its Word of thee. 



80 



HELLENICS 



II 

Patmos might hold me or old Pergamon, 

Ephesian Artemis stretch forth a hand 

To claim a kinship if of trust, self-born, 

In some divinity, some home for man 

And hope of present peace beyond the years. 

Even poor Troy hath treasure of a kind 

For him who battling though against the gods 

Sinks fighting manfully still fill'd with faith 

That soul indomitable shall yet sustain 

The song of potency, the poetry 

Of heroism, fate-defiant : aye 

Some wonder, some example of thy name. 



81 



LOVE POEMS 

PARNASSOS 

I 

I, AT the centre of the world of old, 

To thee, the centre of a world to-day — 

Thy world and mine as thou hast made it ! Love, 

A world sad and austere, so suitable 

To faiths departed, deities long dead. 

I at the old Kastalian spring, to thee 

Fountain and sibyl of a sweeter truth 

(If awful thou, yet not inexorable) 

Nearer to utterance by each breath of thee. 

May thy prophetic omen, sinister 

Indeed, yet none less worshipful, inspire 

My tongue to this high serious hymn of trust ! 



82 



HELLENICS 



II 

The snows are near around me, at my feet 
The ruins of as sage authority 
As ever guarded man by pagan might. 
Nothing remaineth of it save the snow 
And some scarce-still-decipherable slab 
Whence issued voices of the gods to men : 
Mere stone now and the everlasting cold. 
Thou hast desired of me that I should be 
As that dull ruin or these speechless snows. 
Yet, shall the voice of faith be stopp'd, shall soul 
Not burst anew into some wiser song 
Sweeter for more self-knowledge by this pain ? 



83 



LOVE POEMS 



HELIKON 

I 



ParnASSOS neighboring and Helikon 
Not far, I turn me to that Hippokrene 
Call'd Hellas : history of ceaseless strife, 
Self-wreck and self-despite, yet over all 
That high seat of the Muses, lofty place 
Of eminent understanding, reverence 
And proud acceptance of the destiny : 
A soul without a savior, yearning toward 
The god-impassible, yet figuring 
A fairer insight of the God-made-man ! 
I drink of it and take the destiny 
Of Hellas to prefigure thy divine.* 



84 



HELLENICS 



II 

The gods are absent in their calm apart. 

The God was never here. — But let me now 

Interpret to my soul (so unto thee !) 

This history by aid of thy benign 

Conciliation of the strife and woe. 

Temples and cities are there ; names of gods 

For implication of the name of thee ; 

Triumphs, and falls in turn of each from strength 

The city or the god — though over all 

The beauty and the benison. Be this 

Thine answer by thine oracle : ** Yea, live, 

**That Hellas' beauty teach thee more of me ! ** 



85 



LOVE POEMS 



EPIDAUROS 

I 

What though their God of Healing may have fail'd 

A thousand times ? The sick soul yet must come 

To any sign of comfort, to seek there 

The strength anew for travail undismay'd. 

And to the precinct of the healing god 

1 came to ease me of that grievous hurt 

Which only thou canst ease. And there I slept 

In the temple and had vision (as have slept 

Thousands before me and had vision) — thee 

So mine ineffably, so passing kind 

I knew it was a dream. And I awoke 

And straight inscribed the vision on a stone. 



86 



HELLENICS 



II 



And, till the dream come true (as now H is truth 
Of union deeplier than this bitterness), 
Am I an exile, wanderer accursed 
With desolation gnawing at the heart ; 
Knowing mine home, yet ever barr'd from it. 
Shall I, like Myken^an chief of old 
(Himself how eager, how soul-sick of war !), 
Dare a return unto the hearth lessness 
Caird home, to find some seeming welcome there 
Reluctant welcome, but a dagger sheathed ; 
Thy smile compell'd but to confuse this heart 
And take it by surprise and pierce it through ? 



87 



LOVE POEMS 

MYKEN^E 

I 

Thy mercy hath refrain 'd from piercing through 
An heart worn aged, though the world *s yet young, 
In service of thee. Though my wandering seems 
Interminable, yet mine early soul 
Yieldeth anew some relic of that dawn 
When life was sweetest by the birth of thee ; 
And proud emprise unto earth's humblest craft 
Lent dignity, lent continence through all 
The superabundance, self-exuberance 
In first awakening unto beauty. Dear, 
Truce to contention ; yield thee, of thy strength ! 
For I am weak and would not be at war. 



88 



HELLENICS 



II 

I AM not of such stuff as these of old 

Who sought contention for the motion of it, 

Feeling no incongruity in power 

Stiff-poised by strain-imposed rigidity 

Symbolic of the tensive, strenuous stroke 

That knew no peace save in the lust of death. 

I know no lust of death. I fain would live; 

And only war by this the weakness of me, 

Desiring peace, remembering the joy 

Of that which seem'd peace when the soul was 

young. — ^ 

E'en these did fail at last from strength for strife. 
The sceptre pass'd into another hand. 



LOVE POEMS 

ARGOS 

I 

Yet is the sceptre wielded still by thee 
(Mistress of wide adventure, wonder-queen !), 
Compelling man to '* build, equip, launch forth 
**His foresight ", to encompass mightier songs 
Than those of hearthstone and the high -built walls 
Of palace frowning on the plain of home. 
Fertility of cunning, resourceful sleight 
Of hand and intellect thou callest forth 
For chronicle and rhapsody to bind 
(With beauty that is epic) at a birth 
The thousand isles of men, the races of 
An hundred cities, celebrant of life. 



90 



HELLENICS 



II 

What though the tale be myth, what though no 

Troy 
Nor ethnic oath were anywise of thee — 
My truth, as my remembrance ? If the dream 
Of the seer unify these many minds 
Of men's cross-purpose, build unto thy praise 
An eminence of marvel-minstrelsy, 
*T is ample, 'tis the substance founding all. 
To thee, then, this insistence on the truth 
Of the fire-flash of mountain-soul to soul 
(Which thou deniest) announcing to the world 
The accomplish'd fact of unity, at once 
Avenging shame and flaring : '* Greece is born ! " 



91 



LOVE POEMS 



OLYMPIA 

I 

FOR thou didst at the first avenge for me 
Old shames upon the world by yielding me 
A new life, purpose and performance toward 
The sacredness of thee ; when all before 
Was chaos, wreckage of a fall of gods 
Whom no strength union'd at the last to save — 
Mere blackness and confusion — clear'd by thee. 
The naked giant limbs lay toss'd and heap'd 
'Neath Pelion under Ossa, if so be ; 
But unregenerate, unreconciled, 
Writhing and torturing to throes earth all. 
But thou didst order me to health and strength. 



92 



HELLENICS 



II 

And Shalt thou order nought save health and strength 

To be Greece and to teach men there is One, 

Beyond and through ? No deeplier-knitted bond 

Than this of bodily capacities 

Beyond the nations, knit and whole but by 

Accomplishment as mindlessness may do ? 

No steadfast facing of the mystery 

Of me and thee, no resolution of it, 

At worst, by insight of an one-in-each 

Mutual by some absolute symmetry ? — 

Turn we from acme of the earlier Greece 

To see what still an almost-soul could do ! 



93 



LOVE POEMS 

ATHENS 

I 

It was not by Olympian Zeus alone 

That Greece essay'd the wonder-unity ; 

But by that splendor sprung full-arm'd of him, 

Athena, matron of the mounting mind, 

Preceptress of the intellect that knows 

Of thee and thine and may embody thee 

In works of marvel and a high delight ; 

Though dwelling scarce in thee nor, as thy soul 

Permeant with creative sympathy. 

Beyond all gods, interpreter of them. 

She but interprets as a man may feel 

And see, who stands within the pale of death, 



94 



HELLENICS 



II 

Bewildered and self-hostile, seeking but 

Defiance and escape by masking death 

In petty permanence of lifeless stone. — 

There is an art un-Grecian, an insight 

Of soul's identity, through sacrifice, 

Achieving self-eternal permanence 

By constancy of alterance on and on 

Through service and salvation ever new. 

This art I 'd bring thee, who hast proven art 

But life beyond death's possibility : 

Truth love-embodied. Alkestis, Greece' great 

saint 
So near achieved, so barely miss'd, that goal ! 



95 



LOVE POEMS 

SPARTA 

I 

Ah ! but endurance, failing in the stone 

Perchance, else in the tragedy of fate 

Swept by the futile fate-catastrophe 

Beyond the plain life-problem (and the soul 

Thus proven, by reversion to itself, 

Inly supreme and substance of all fate) — 

Endurance as the maxim of the soul 

Essay'd experiment and nobly won, 

At worst, world-reputation ; that, were I 

But ** Spartan '\ thou shouldst never hear the 

wail 
Of the vital agony, but go thy way 
Ignorant of the vulpine tooth and claw ! 



96 



HELLENICS 



II 

I HAVE been Spartan, were the half but told. 

Yet like that sterner people I am come 

To helplessness, destruction finally ; 

And by my nature must make song of it, 

Ennobling desolation and dismay 

With still some pasan : though the grave at last 

Be marked but : *' He, in battle *', I would fain 

Fall uncomplaining ; yet believe that Greece 

Hath possibility of splendor still 

Beyond these mountains' melanchoJy ; still 

A vale upspringing : though Taygetos 

Guard nothing save some lingering memory. 



97 



LOVE POEMS 



THEBES 

I 

Endurance yet can be an ignominy, 

Indeed, an opportunist lingering 

Of energy, a biding till the time 

Serve and the man, that after centuries 

Of insignificance shall surge in sort 

A short-lived power, and the swift years seem 

True splendor till the slow long season come 

Anew of namelessness and indolence. 

Shall any stew of stupor sensuous, 

Stirr'd by one passing impulse, stand for Greece- 

Epaminondas, after Perikles, 

Be figure of the pagan prophecy ? 



98 



HELLENICS 



II 



Nay, from that failure of Euripides 
To speak a perfect wisdom, must the fall 
Of Greece, even as the failure of my soul 
From thee, be mark'd unto thy chronicling — 
Some flickering, some crude Aristotle still 
Deciphering the riddle put by her 
Who sat beside the way and did devour 
All failure for its self-acknowledged doom. 
Dear, I avow the failure : am as Thebes 
The briefly powerful to mouth of thee 
A moment ; ere thy sphinx eat of my heart, 
Derisive of love's ill-conceived reply. 



99 



LOVE POEMS 



KORINTH 

I 

And were it nobler then to aim at nought 
Save voyage as for market-trafficking 
In quest of selfish gain, for barren meed 
Rendering world service but unwittingly ? 
Fain would I render world no service such 
As, openly oblivious of thee, 
Comes unaware, unzealous from the hand 
That looks not, ay, beyond its hoarded coin, 
Its comfort and its vain caparison. 
Fain would I serve even Hermes for the sake 
Of service : else admit my soul for lost, 
My sense of thee misfeatured at the birth. 



100 



HELLENICS 



II 



I FANCY, some who served the sordid god 
In Greece' degeneration felt as I 
The degradation from the soul's estate 
Of worship, sought indeed some solace in 
The name of mystery — if missing it 
None less by sure debasement in the choice 
Of her to whom the offering was made. 
Some cult here linger' d with an early name 
Call'd mystic mainly : though a last resort, 
A shame and putrefaction. — So, I pass 
To Aphrodite ? No ! Her priestess-crew 
Knew nothing of the holy theme of thee. 



101 



LOVE POEMS 

ELEUSIS 

I 

Along the sweetness of the sacred way, 
Through blossoming wide fields and sunlit farms 
Of almond, olive and the pasturing flocks ; 
The sea beside and, all around, the hills ; 
With voice of the lark a-wing and bells of sheep 
Tinkling ; lo ! hither, therefore, are we come — 
Eleusis, the Ineffable ; and we stand. 
Thy soul and I, even at the source of grace 
As Hellas sought or found it in her gods. 
The sea beside, and, all around, the hills : 
We stand, thy soul and I, and dream at last 
Deep in the dear Demetrian Mysteries. 



102 



HELLENICS 



II 

Men may not know their meaning. Men have said 

The springtime as it cometh and is fair 

Teacheth a hope which herein was reveal'd 

To the initiate ; and men have said 

Sad autumn and the earth's descent to sleep 

Taught of perpetuance : but we may not know. 

Enough that votive monuments inscribed 

Testify to the healing and the help 

Within those hearts that still envisaged death 

Yet came here for the comfort. And I too 

Testify to the comfort and declare 

Thy mystery ; and save me by thy souK 



103 



LOVE POEMS 

DELPHI 

I 

Unto this temple (as my soul to thee !) 
Repair 'd the cities and the thousand isles 
For counsel, and received (or seem'd to sense) 
An insight supernatural to guide 
Each undertaking. Never went away 
A worshiper without some wisdom earn'd 
To dwell with it and be more man thereby. 
Somewhiles 't was desperate, else double-voiced, 
The maxim ; and the man went forth to fall 
Or not fall, wiser by the proof alone : 
Yet reverent through all bewilderment, 
Resolute that the oracle be truth. 



104 



HELLENICS 



II 

The altar of the god of loftiest light, 
Apollo, whence the oracle arose ! 
Lo ! I have vow'd me unto thee for life 
Or death, sworn on this altar by my love ! 
And unto thee, O Thou my Pythian 1 
Offered myself, fill'd with a living faith. — 
Thine oracle hath spoke : ** Thou mayest live 
**And yet mayest not have faith *' — ambiguously ; 
For life and hope are one. I ask again, 
Fiird with the faith anew : " Declare to me I " — 
And so shall still demand of thee till thou 
Sayest, ** Thine hope may live ! '* — or, ** Thou 
Shalt die!'* 



105 



LOVE POEMS 

THE IONIAN SEA 

I 

I HAVE not seen Olympos. But the gods 
Dwell doubtless there afar as in old days. 
Christ hath not come, nor any ethic myth 
Displaced their calm abandonment of man. 
Man may, as Hellas all-time hath abode. 
Endure beyond their ken though every breath 
And work of man intended to their praise 
Cry unto heaven for the truth to fall. 
Greece have I seen, from sacred shrine to shrine 
Made offering ; and still I see not thee 
Unless in mystery. Yet I depart 
With faith as formerly on homeward seas. 



106 



HELLENICS 



II 

Unto the chief this islet was as home 
Long-sought though hostile to a stranger-eye ; 
Ithaka ; nothing but an ocean-rock 
Wave-rack'd, scarce life-sustaining — save that here 
Abode a welcome, faithfulness hard-proved 
And found not wanting. Though my wandering 
Be world-wide, yet in me that faithfulness 
Abides as in her breast that sat at home : 
Thyself that home : most, that the wonder-isles 
Of Greece seduced to brief sojourning-place. 
Be but that home ! Answer thou to my prayer : 
**Be welcome, wanderer; for thy faith's sake." 



107 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 

THE PILGRIM 

I 

The visiting of each far holy place 
Throughout earth's wide intelligence of thee; 
The entering within strange faiths of men 
Anent thy fair familiar sacredness : 
This is my portion ; driven forth, with all 
The world to choose where I might but forget. 
Haply ; where I might learn anew but thee ! 
Lo ! from my youth have I still visited 
In adoration and have still beheld 
(Despite the madness of men's fantasy) 
The meaning of thee in the metaphor, 
The poetry and godliness of things. 



110 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

Behold a folk maddest of fantasy, 

Fill'd strangeliest with the wildest among dreams 

Of thee, confused, multiform ! And my life 

Fill'd erst with sanity by strength of thee 

Is as their mysteries. — Shall I believe 

Metempsychosis, that myself hath been 

This mythus ; and my knowledge of thee, nought ? 

Or shall the self, facing the face uncouth 

Of these monstrosities within my soul, 

Elucidate the mystery, inform 

With better wisdom of the lore of thee 

The shifting palimpsest ; and prove it truth ? 



Ill 



LOVE POEMS 



THE PARSEES 
I 

The heaven-sent floods are far too clean for flesh ; 

Contamination of the vital earth 

Were vulgar sacrilege by my coarse clay ; 

The eternal elements of the embalming flame 

Require for fit associate but a soul ! — 

Wilt thou thus that my body (of motion barr'd, 

Balk'd the live splendor of a love-born strength 

Of trust in cosmic consanguinity, 

Spurn'd of the spirit of a passion of thee) 

Be as the unentomb'd and naked dead 

Exposed for carrion to the carrion fowl, 

Pick'd to the bone's uncognizable dust ? 



112 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

The air above is choked with maws of prey, 
The earth is widely as a charnel-room 
Bespatter'd with the clots of offal food. 
Some fire is needed if to purge the heart 
That knows what worketh in the silence there : 
That knows what reeketh between earth and heaven 
Under the sun because no spirit it hath. — 
Yet that which reeketh knoweth not its shame. 
And that which shrinketh from the place unclean 
Need never taste of death while still it shameth, 
And knoweth as I know the passion I bear thee 
For fire, associate fitly with my soul. 



113 



LOVE POEMS 

THE MUSSULMANS 

I 

There is one God, not great above the rest 
But sole, conclusive of divinity : 
Allah-Akbar, the Strong, the Jealous One. — 
No vague Brahman is He ; but Jahveh's pride, 
Transfused effectual retribution still. 
Informing one alone, the chosen one 
Muhammad, sword and trumpet-voice of Him. 
There is one Word, not mythic-mild aloof. 
But once to earth descended in the wrath 
Here by my heart interpreted, as erst 
By mouth of him, Muhammad, to all men. — 
Wherefore my spirit worships toward thy West. 



114 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

Ah ! but a tale hath been of Him Who came 

Not trumpet-voiced, not sword and scourge of God, 

But kindly comforting His humankind ? 

Yea, thou hast heard that where is worship, there 

Love prayeth ; and where only love hath prayM 

Divinity is proved in answering prayer ? — 

Life for a life ; soul for a soul ; ah, love 

For love : the law of Jahveh as we both 

Acknowledge His primal authority ! 

Life, soul and love I give thee : for thou hast them. 

Life, soul and love shall prove thee by the law 

Allah, conclusive of divinity. 



115 



LOVE POEMS 

THE MOGULS 

I 

LO ! but an error fatal as profound ! — 
A dome so beautiful were sweeter far 
Than any Paradise. No soul enshrined 
In such a mausoleum e*er shall see 
God, unless God inhabit too the tomb. — 
Sooth/twere as well (were soul at all, without 
Thee, to remain unto the body dead). 
It were as well to rest eternally 
Alluring haply God, with earth at peace ; 
Nor seek to rise ! But rather would I writhe 
In blistering ash, abhorrent still to thee : 
That I might strive and lift to thee at last ! 



116 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

Nay, for a world which is a world of thee 
Were beautiful as any Palace Tomb. 
Though we be rust we need not further rise 
Who fain would make for beauty with our hand 
Assured that God inhabits though we die. 
Ah ! he that knoweth thee need never die, 
But worketh beauty with unending breath. — 
Peace to Jehan imperial and his soul ! 
A man inspired of beauty, knowing God 
Even in the tomb and working as at peace, 
For all earth's turmoil ! — Wherefore with a peace 
As this pure tomb shall be thy world to me. 



117 



LOVE POEMS 



THE JAINS 



A PEACE hath been conceived of harmlessness, 
Restraint from rendering least injury, 
For reason of the sanctity of each 
Least instance of the spirit that is life. 
To foster, nowise thwart — it might be so 
Were Spirit, which is Life, the same in each 
As is the self ; were every truth as mine 
By my believing, and world's will but one. — 
Shall I lose hold of whatso truth I owe 
For fear to overwhelm a truth less sure, 
Less absolute than this my love for thee ? 
Beloved, must I then cease from suing thee ? 



118 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

There is a peace, couldst thou believe in it, 

Of mutual sacrifice ; I grant thee so. 

There is a peace whose perfect prosperousness 

Of will within will, life within life, lives 

By reconciliation constantly 

Of thine not-mine, by give and take of death 

Life's sustenance. But thou wilt not. And therefore 

Must my love harm thee till my soul shall cease. — 

There is no peace of mere passivity 

Despite thy soul's new doctrine. Who would serve thee 

Shall not forbear ; must never lose from life 

Assertion of love's menace from all-time. 



119 



LOVE POEMS 

THE GURUS 

I 

And is there nothing new beneath the sun ? 

Hath all been said and written ; that we now 

Repeat old formulae or fall from thee ? 

Hath all been learn'd of wisdom and the ways 

Of holiness, no utterance of thine 

Ever to come to tell new paths of truth ? 

Some inspiration hath been — here be men 

With memory of each symbol of the screed 

Sacred with wisdom of the serious past : 

Of thee much hath been written. — Yet much else 

Shall be. And all, Evangel, yea, as Law, 

Enshrined in worship shall remain to me. 



120 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

It may be that these too expect a day 
Of final revelation unto earth ; 
Their tri-une, riding on the clouds on high 
In vision as the apocalypse — I know not. 
I know but that thy silence may endure 
To the last syllable ; and recorded time 
Hold not the speech that shall transfigure me. 
Still is the silence holy, memorable, 
Teaching thy way of charity as faith 
Unto my soul that cannot take thee false. — 
They murmur of past passion ; but I suffer 
Fresh crucifixions in thy dumbness now. 



121 



LOVE POEMS 

THE SIKHS 

I 

Deep speech there surely hath been ; and therethrough 
Hath been initiation. Therearound 
Are temples builded ; and thereon, with brow- 
Bent to the holy scripture, must I pore 
Obedient, chasten'd if still suffering. 
And all who read therein shall be compelled 
By virtue of the book to render awe 
Unto its sacredness. Its mystic words 
Shall burn before the nations, being of light. 
Though none should comprehend. And comprehension 
Doth my love still afford within thy shrine ! — 
Wherefore art thou not dumb where speech hath been. 



122 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 



The mighty murmur of repeating o'er 

Tliy solemn text falls on the inward sense 

From thousand voices hourly of the heart. 

The soul is all within thy temple walls 

Ensymbol'd, and the open book contain'd 

Is God visibly present unto me. 

Thou mayest scoff: ** He understandeth not 

**The slightest syllable upon the book. 

** His temple is a tomb wherein my truth 

** Lies stifled if so be it truth at all." 

Beloved, the very gold upon these walls 

Is wrought by thee and burnish 'd by thy breath. 



123 



LOVE POEMS 

THE MENDICANTS 

I 

An half-whole ministry — to ask of earth 
The earthly sustenance, that so the soul 
By meditation without worldly care 
May cumulate redemption for the world ! 
An half -whole ministry ! How may the spirit 
Dependent upon earth for earthly alms 
Be mighty to incorporate through earth 
E'en such wan wisdom, innocent of things ? 
Might I by taking thought but on thy word 
Redeem world to thy best divinity 
Of saving love, who for thy least of grace 
Am beggar, famish 'd for the moment's food ? 



124 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 



Within the spirit I may beg of thee 
Indeed ; but strive to stand responsible 
In mine intelligence of earth and thee. 
Mine the high burden of enlightening thee, 
If so be, to reciprocal ministrance, 
Each heart in heart, feeding the mutual soul. 
Mine the almsgiving from the fulness of 
Thine inspiration. And if so at last 
Mine hand be beggar'd by thy riches in it, 
Then hath the spirit no more need of alms. 
Then earth and thou, my sustenance as care, 
Absolve from mendicancy whom they save. 



125 



LOVE POEMS 

THE BRAHMINS 

I 

There are who arrogate unto their caste 

A preordain'd salvation, scarce of thee 

Nor of themselves, yet yielded in thy name. 

Yet am I of the twice-born : I have been^ 

Elorn of myself and once again of thee. 

Were any further birth efficient toward 

Redemption ? Might some strange power, in thy 

name, 
Command performance of a ritual 
Unmeaning ? Might a derogation from 
Standard not set by thee debar from bliss ? 
These are but once-born, born unto themselves 
To perish by their misbegotten rules. 



126 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

Yet who am I to arrogate to self 
Judgment superior to this priest-craft's power 
Of self-insistent insight ? Whence my claim 
To some sole comprehension of thy will ? 
Nought save mine innermost dependence on thee 
Commandeth inspiration. In myself 
Am I but born to unintelligence 
And failure still to apprehend of truth. 
It is the second birth that openeth 
The heavens and declareth deity 
To eyes enravishM of unwonted things. 
And since that birth had truth seem'd as mine 
own. 



127 



LOVE POEMS 

THE VISHNUITES 

I 

Our life preserveth not itself from day 
To day save by some power not ourselves 
Preserving over us, some Permanence 
Permeant through the novelty of worlds 
And their decay, some godliness which Is. 
I, might my breath be taken once again 
And yet again, might any pulse of me 
Be mine beyond the momentary throb 
Save by thy guardianship, thy sacredness 
Ensphering hour by hour and making Soul 
This coming and departing momently ? — 
And didst thou erst create : and shalt destroy ? 



128 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

FOR by thy godliness art thou enwholed, 

And needs art that which Was, which brought to pass 

The spirit of me ; needs art also that 

Which Shall Be, by whose being comes an end. 

Creator ! therefore, and Destroyer, too ! — 

Yet, if thou art that inspiration whence 

Life Cometh to abiding, as that cause 

By whose self-operation wins the soul 

Its best annihilation, were my soul 

Aught else than thou ? Thy power, beyond ourselves ? 

I feel thee for my substance ; sense my frame 

Eterne by mine acknowledgment of thee ! 



129 



LOVE POEMS 

THE SIVAITES 

I 

No life abides save still to be destroyed. 

Annihilation only shall endure — 

The universal, godly and supreme. 

Though may the soul seem fair, the gods but kind, 

Tendeth the soul unto the void, the gods 

Harbor an ill-intention : till in time 

Is time fulfill'd and death is God alone. 

Thou, didst thou seem so sheltering, did thy speech 

Suffer interpretation of good-will, 

That life seem'd of itself an holiness 

God-like enduring in the name pf thee ? 

And art thou That which endeth everything ? 



130 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

So be it. In the godliness of thee 
Informing still with splendor him I am, 
Am I the Universal and my death 
Nought but a reproduction lest the spirit 
Be stagnate with entirety of truth. 
If thou destroyest must thou too create 
And thus alone preserve in endless life 
The heart that is thy substance. Whence thy 

power, 
Destroying utterly all faith and hope 
Within me, shall ennoble hope and faith 
Unendingly to every moment's surge . 
Within me of thy re-creativeness. 



131 



LOVE POEMS 



THE YOGIS 



Whoso may still desire of the world 

Fair intercourse, who findeth his delight 

In earth's activity and shares with earth 

The rumor and wonder of all changing things, 

Is not as these who mortify their hope 

And make denial with their daily breath. 

Have they some subtler hope, yet some delight 

Of hush'd appreciation cheating still 

The pretext of indifference and death ? 

Are they as I desireless yet moved 

With adoration ? It might be — for I 

Have died unto the world, who live for thee ! 



132 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 



Why sit they though so utterly unmann'd, 

Inaction'd, and they have thee at the heart ? 

Know I not adoration, and therethrough 

Am passionately moved, mightily moving 

In mine appreciation thy sweet world 

Of splendor, fit for service of the soul ? 

They have not thee at heart, they are not fill'd 

With worship which requireth every hour 

The fresh thanksgiving, the unending prayer 

By enterprise divinely dedicate. 

These have no secret of salvation ; these 

Are dead to the world, because they know not thee. 



133 



LOVE POEMS 

THE SUTTEES 

I 

Yet it is plausible that there hath been 

Some death in heaven, and thy heaven-in-earth 

Is widow'd of its lord and calleth as 

A thing forsaken on who will not hear. 

This wrestling of the spirit with such truths 

As thou vouchsafest (strange, bewildering 

By misresponse unto the spirit's need !), 

This outcast wandering without the pale 

Of any place made paradise by thee, 

This spirit-ruinous mystery but bears 

One lesson at the last : / knew not thee ; 

And best were nought before aught else I know. 



134 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 



FOR, failing thee — if failure be between 

In any guise, as thou alone canst say ? — 

For, failing thee, are these things in their right 

Delusions real, typic monstrosities 

Of faith, to overthrow all sanity. 

Without thy pure evangel must the world 

Perish from sanctity and virtue feel 

No warrant in its dark idolatry. 

The sword and scourge of God, the carrion crew 

Of offal-feeders were a fairer faith 

Than aught self-born to widow'd India. 

Without thy heaven hath earth no pilgrim-place. 



135 



LOVE POEMS 

THE DEVOTEES 

I 

My pilgrimage forsooth hath not been long : 

Only a life-time from that birth in thee 

Till now an end as here I lay me down 

By Ganga and shall pass upon his stream. 

The bitterness of dust hath pass'd away 

Before me, and jupon the holy ghats 

My spiced woods and incense stand prepared. 

May the fierce furnace of the spirit be swift 

And firmly fatal ; and so inmostly 

May all be ashen that the scarce-scorch 'd wave 

Shall cleanly cover the polluted place 

Of death and wash earth of the last footfall. 



136 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

My soul hath many ways perplexed herself 
With these monstrosities of dream within 
Her sphere of pilgrimage ; and many ways 
Hath dream'd unto herself an holier truth 
Of thee and of thy ministry through each 
Dismay and each delusion : but none else 
Bringeth conviction than this dream at last 
Of uttermost purgation as by flame 
And streams of Himavat. Here life and creed 
Are one, here hope and truth indifferently 
Devote self to thy service. Shalt thou say : 
** Ay, offer thee to death : and find thy peace '* ? 



137 



LOVE POEMS 

THE UNBELIEVERS 

1 

Nay, but is not mine heart even as this heart 
Of India which, failing to awake 
To ways of resurrection, calleth as 
That *' thing forsaken " on its dream of thee ? 
Can any death be cure where only faith 
Cureth the spirit — and that faith were dead 
Even with the common perishing of clay ? 
Lo ! from these sands where Ganga in the sea 
Perisheth, one last prayer ascendeth ; one 
Need of thy love's enlightenment allow'd 
Prevents the degradation, still precludes 
Peace by the desperate soul-sacrifice. 



138 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

The Oriental Mystery remains 
Within me of this nescience of thee : 
Of nothingness, annihilation still 
If by the burning-ghat : whilst yet the spirit 
Refuseth action, will not self-destroy 
The dreamer ; but abideth as inane, 
Unmanned, unnerved, contemplator of nought. 
Not from the East, the Void, shall any peace 
Of insight be achieved ; nor doth in me 
Thy strength suffice to reconstruct a truth 
Efficiently demonstrative of thee. — 
The purpose of my pilgrimage hath fail'd. 



139 



LOVE POEMS 

THE DISCIPLE 

I 

And yet that hope which goeth to defeat 
Achieveth satisfaction : scarce in my 
Will, but in thy will by whose breath I am. 
How might that proselyting in my soul 
Succeed where inspiration gropes at fault 
Requiring fresh search at thy perfect fount 
Of revelation : that I understand ? 
Shall not this lifting of the face to thee 
As to a new evangel earn at last 
The comprehension by the hearkening, 
The service by the waiting patiently 
Unto the Pentecostal gift of speech ? 



140 



AN INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 



II 

'T IS thus that, front to front with falsity, 
We learn some lack of final faith within. 
Perceiving earth but dream, we find our dream, 
That seem'd erstwhile a wakening, but sleep 
Still, unempower'd through the living world. — 
Still Eastward ! finding, in the want of thee 
World-wide amid these unregenerate, 
The trial and the pathway, present proof 
Vouchsafed of thy salvation through the years. 
Not, not the god. But still the God-born word 
Engirdling earth to tell earth of His naine ; 
That earth, mine earth, may know thee : and be 
whole ! 



141 



CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 



JUN 29 1912 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

018 407 610 A 



